Duolingo

• Free language learning app with 500 million users
• Mission to make acquiring a new language fun and universally accessible
• More than 40 languages offered (Dutch, Japanese, and Swahili among them)
• Expanding into math, children’s reading, school curriculums, and other education 
• 700-plus employees from more than 30 countries
• Pittsburgh headquarters; also offices in New York, Seattle, Beijing, and Berlin

Challenges & Solutions 

• Duolingo’s recruiters have found that sourcing their team from the company’s internship program is a really effective method, so it was essential to create marketing tools that help draw the best and brightest students.
  • Post Script developed a long form video for prospective interns that portrayed the intern-to-full-time-job pipeline details with exciting visuals that appealed to Gen Z viewers.

• The company wanted to overcome the geographic challenge of recruiting to their Pittsburgh headquarters and effectively compete for hires in more traditional hubs like San Francisco and New York. 
  • Our team captured beautiful footage in and around Pittsburgh that shows off the city’s attributes in a cinematic but subtle way, using drone footage and sunset b-roll to show it’s a great place to be.

• A recruitment team with a high, fast-paced workload needed a creative partner who could quickly pivot as needs arose.
  • Our videographers and producers served with the agility of an internal team, adapting to last-minute schedule changes and providing a teleprompter script so busy staff members didn’t have to memorize important facts and details.

• Scheduling filming at a busy company required an investment of Duolingo’s resources during National Intern Week; they needed a partner who would give them the most value in return for that time.
  • We were able to deliver footage to craft a six-minute lead video for YouTube, the website, and presentations, as well as a series of 90-second clips to use on social media, stretching one project into multiple pieces of content.

• Recruitment videos can be notoriously dull. Duolingo needed content that grabbed attention and reflected their playful reputation on social media.
  • Our team conducted authentic interviews with student interns, shot footage during a pivotal week of social events, and captured the interns presentations with the CEO, then applied creative editing to pull it all together dynamically. 

Video 1: Duolingo Internship Program

As a leading tech company, Duolingo relies on their internship program to develop and hire for full-time roles. They wanted to create video content that accurately portrayed all the details of the program in a fresh and fun way that made potential recruits say, “I have to work at Duolingo!”

[Key Elements] 

• A team of videographers and producers spent a week on-site with Duolingo, working to capture key moments with the CEO and authentic interviews with interns, pivoting quickly depending on the company’s moment-to-moment needs.
• Drone and sunset footage of Pittsburgh documented Duolingo’s home base beautifully, helping them showcase the city and compete against recruiters in more traditional tech hubs.
• Scripted content was captured via teleprompter which made filming easy to fit into full-time team members’ schedules and ensured details of the internship program were communicated accurately and concisely.
• A wide range of creative footage meant delivering value beyond the initial scope, creating a primary video as well as 90-second clips for social media.

Check it out! https://youtu.be/E2ORgdGKJT0?si=xzCr_xfZLDWdiY_2 

Ensure your content creation is professional, not amateur, by avoiding these five mistakes.

When producing a video for your brand or project, authenticity should be one of your aims. Making things look “real” helps build stronger connections with your brand or organization. 

But it’s a fine line—you want to achieve transparency without looking like a rookie with shaky mobile phone footage and bad audio. Without polished video production, an attempt at genuineness can land with a thud and downgrade your brand’s value and audience’s respect. 

Professional vs. amateur

Crafting a high-quality, professional video is far more demanding than it initially appears. The profound impact that video has on customers’ perception of your business cannot be overstated, underscoring the significance of its execution. It is undoubtedly worth the effort to deliver a video that truly shines.

Crafting engaging video content that audiences want to watch can have an incredible payoff for your brand: more than 1 billion hours of video are consumed on YouTube every day, and one of the world’s most popular apps, TikTok, is powered completely by video. According to research cited in The Drum, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it as text.

As a marketer or even as a business owner, you’re likely already conscious of video’s dominance. But creating video is not enough on its own: it needs to be something your audience wants to watch. 

As you embark on your next filming project, it’s important to recognize that just as good video creates lots of brand equity, bad video can seriously tarnish your brand. 

Creating content that’s polished and professional is key. Doing so means taking your audience and the competition seriously by putting out video that’s captivating rather than tedious.

Five video mistakes to avoid
So how do you strike a balance between video that conveys something genuine without veering into unprofessional? Here are five mistakes we recommend avoiding.  View these as videos on you YouTube Channel!

1. Weak storyline
   Even a one-minute video needs to tell a clear story, and good storytelling requires planning. Be sure to examine in advance who your audience is, where they’ll view the content, and what message or call to action you want to convey. Stringing b-roll and music together without illustrating a purpose or narrative likely won’t serve your marketing goals. 
2. Wrong length for the platform or audience
   The needs of a short TikTok video will be different than those in a 10-minute YouTube video. You must understand your various platforms and what your viewers expect of you in each location. For example, a video of interviews (a “talking head”-style piece) that’s lengthy won’t be an effective reel for Instagram, where people are scrolling through brief clips. This length would be more effective on your website or emailed out to current (or potential) clients.
3. Shaky footage and unnecessary camera movement
   Your visuals help tell the story, so it’s important to craft them thoughtfully. Capturing your subjects at the right angles, and establishing whether to use a close or wide shot, are important choices that affect the quality. Recording with a hand held camera causing unintentional movement can also divert your audience and give them motion sickness in the process!
4. Poor audio quality
   This is a crucial differentiator between bad and good video content. Too much background noise and hard-to-understand dialogue can make or break your video project. Focus on using high-quality microphones and filming in locations where the speaker can be easily heard.  
5. Overuse of transition, effects, and fillers
   Like differing framing techniques, it’s engaging to use these as creative enhancements for your video but choose wisely. Overdoing any of them can be distracting, off-brand, or confusing. Be thoughtful with editing and remember the aim is to not only tell the story, but keep the audience’s attention.

Finding the right partner
The best way to avoid looking like an amateur is to select the right partner! 

Creating great video content seems simple thanks to the abundance of technology. But going it alone can mean wasted staff time, unfinished projects, and poor-quality footage. By engaging a content partner, you can depend on experts to capture and edit videos with the right high-quality equipment and, most importantly, to deliver good storytelling.

Our team loves collaborating with clients to ensure video content accurately reflects a brand’s story and image. Reach out via the contact form to talk about how we can help you through the process.

You’ve probably heard the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Consider, then, how much more powerful a video can be.

A well-crafted video can hold your audience’s attention and help them understand an issue or retain key facts. And you don’t need the length of a typical major motion picture to do it. Short videos are the sweet spot for telling impactful stories that hook viewers, getting them emotionally invested in the outcome. These videos can drive action in a way that other mediums can’t.

In the legal arena, the power of video in telling personal narratives is extremely apparent. For example, a several-minute film utilized in a personal injury case can portray a story that might take pages and pages of writing in a legal brief or deposition transcript. 

For personal injury attorneys, having a film like this in hand can bring their client’s experiences, emotions, and struggles to life for key decision-makers—ensuring a fair and expedient outcome in their case.

Reach your audience with a video to make a difference for your clients

In the event of a catastrophic accident, injury, or wrongful death, personal injury attorneys are tasked with documenting the story of a person and, in many cases, their family who are all now facing a very real, often daily, struggle. 

Clients have experienced a damaging, life-changing event and are frequently in need of a settlement, insurance payout, or court award to help cover medical bills, caregivers, adaptive changes to their homes and cars, and other expenses. They are also likely dealing with limited or lost employment opportunities, as well as processing all the emotions that come with a traumatic event. 

A day-in-the-life video can capture the details and emotions of clients’ day-to-day struggles in a way that legal documents simply can’t. Viewers can hear the person’s experience in their own words and clearly see the impact of the event on their families and lifestyle. 

A short film can present opposing counsel, judges, juries, and other decision-makers with evidence they might not see otherwise. For an attorney, this video documentation can be key in reaching a fair and timely resolution that truly meets their client’s needs.  

Getting the details right: How we film a compelling day-in-the-life story 

Day-in-the-life videos depend on subject interviews to craft their narrative. Filmmakers need to be comfortable interviewing clients and their families or caregivers. They also need to work collaboratively with the attorney or law firm to effectively document the evidence needed to support the client’s case.

Interviewing intricacies: Sensitive, supportive, and client-first

In our experience filming day-in-the-life videos, we’ve found that personal injury attorneys appreciate knowing a caring production crew, one that is an extension of their team and sensitive to the needs of a client going through a challenging time.

Putting an interview subject at ease is multi-faceted—from traveling to their home or another location where they feel most comfortable to discussing what they should wear for their interview to asking sensitive questions and ensuring they feel supported throughout the entire process.

Having conducted hundreds of interviews, we’ve learned that it is important to be patient, empathetic, kind, and respectful during this process in order to capture relaxed, candid conversations. That way, the stories reflect the authenticity of the family and their situation, which often includes a range of emotions as they recount such difficult events. 

The filming process takes time. People can be nervous or self-conscious in front of the camera. Making the subjects comfortable and bringing forth their natural voices and personalities are key factors in telling an authentic narrative—without overdramatizing. 

Turning the raw footage into a short film

Mapping the raw footage from interviews into a cohesive storyline is the next step. Taking what can often amount to several hours of footage and editing it down to an 8 to 20 minute video requires experience and a skilled eye for the important details.

During this process, it is essential to convey a compelling, easy-to-follow narrative that hooks viewers almost instantly—and that has all the documentation required by the attorney to make their case. Once the storyline is established, the behind-the-scenes work—and magic—of video editing begins. This includes details like:

• Creating smooth cuts between interviews
• Adding “B-roll” or ​​subsequent footage filmed outside the interviews
• Integrating any pre-existing media like family photographs, home movies, etc.
• Incorporating graphics and music, as desired
• Adding music where appropriate to keep the flow

While these items might sound small and easy enough to accomplish, how these details are executed can make the difference between a polished, professional film and a video that was obviously captured using a mobile device. In legislative cases when so much is at stake, you can guess which video will be more impactful.

Interested? We’d love to talk with you 

At Post Script Productions, we take care of all the details to deliver a polished and persuasive film—one that takes an honest, authentic look at the challenges facing clients and their families. In addition to day-in-the-life videos, we also offer client testimonials, site inspections, and settlement films. 

The United Mine Workers of America Career Center has a serious task: training future miners on life-saving safety procedures. They needed a video production partner to take on the task of elevating their training materials. They partnered with our team on a series of 10-15 minute videos that reimagined training with storytelling and visuals to make it more illustrative and engaging. And we included a version in Spanish to make the content more accessible to their workforce.

Here’s how we navigated complex technical topics to craft essential training videos. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with their team to help communicate their essential messages!

United Mine Workers of America Career Centers (UMWACC)

• Founded in 1996
• Client base in rural Appalachia
• Split focus:
  1) training incoming coal miners through simulations and
  2) training displaced coal miners in need of non-mining jobs
• Provide outreach for miners’ families
• Supported by state and federal grants

Challenges & Solutions 

• UMWACC was seeking a video/photo-focused partner to transition their safety training materials to a more illustrative format.
  • Condense and translate scattered materials (documents, images, PowerPoints) into more detailed, polished, and engaging video scripts.
    
• Recruiting an outside partner who can understand complex mining safety procedures is difficult, making outsourcing these niche training materials a challenge.
  • Dive into UMWACC’s world and learn its ins and outs to become an extension of the internal team, communicating technical aspects to audiences in a clear and concise way.
    
• UMWACC needed someone who could tackle the creative and technical safety aspects of crafting training videos. Educational materials need to be accurate while holding the viewer’s attention.
  • Bridge the gap between education and storytelling, crafting content that engages trainees and makes essential, life-saving information memorable.
    
• Conducting mining safety simulations is laborious; filming errors could present complications and would be difficult to rectify later.
  • Provide professional videographers who can make smart judgment calls on what to capture in high-pressure moments and how to do so efficiently on-site.
    

Client Success Story:
Preparing for Effective Mine Emergency Response, Drill Exercise Participation, and Mine Rescue Operations
UMWACC was educating future miners on safety procedures using PowerPoint materials. Post Script collaborated with the team to transition and elevate their training for the modern and multi-generational workforce.

 Key Elements

• Translated scattered technical materials into cohesive 10-15 minute video trainings
• Crews provided agility and professionalism when filming complex mining simulations
• Bridged the gap between sharing practical information and storytelling to make safety lessons more clear and memorable
• Provided polished finished product, with graphics and professional voiceover, to enhance the credibility of materials

Due to the sensitive nature of this project, we are unable to share the final video.

Think back to the education you received during History class. You were probably given textbooks with all kinds of data, statistics, and figures about hundreds of different historical events.

Can you recall even one of those facts?

Unlikely.

But you probably remember the stories of the people and events in the TV shows or movies that replayed those time periods. Hamilton, for example, connects people to the story of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton through captivating visuals and musical compositions. Opposed to cold statistics, stories sear themselves into our memories. 

Stories are an undeniably powerful communication tool. According to the London School of Business, people only recall 5% to 10% of what you tell them when you use only facts. But weave those facts into a story, and your audience retains 65% to 70% of the information.

It’s simple, but in communication, some of the simplest things can be the toughest to execute. Getting it right matters, and there is no better medium for the human story than video.

Crafting a Compelling Story
Employing storytelling in your messaging isn’t enough. To utilize the power of stories, we have to tell them effectively. 

Luckily, there’s a four-step formula for creating stories with impact. And it applies to nearly any type of message you’re trying to get across.

According to Carmine Gallo, Harvard instructor, keynote speaker, and author of “The Bezos Blueprint,” using these elements—protagonists and characters, conflict, resolution, and structure—will sharpen your storytelling skills.

Start with the protagonists. These are the heroes of the story, the main characters who face hurdles they must overcome. A message about the impact of a donation, for example, will go much further when we meet the people affected, like a student (let’s call her Sara) who is the first in her family to pursue a college education. With a strong protagonist, the audience can connect on an emotional level.

From there, you’ll identify the conflict. What are the hurdles Sara faces in achieving her goal? We might learn that her family struggles to afford university and that she has juggled work and school to help her family pay rent. Pinpoint the obstacles that stand in the way of your protagonist’s goal.

The next piece is the resolution. Suppose a successful fundraising campaign by your organization has introduced a scholarship fund into Sara’s life that allows her to overcome her financial limitations. We see that the protagonist has made it through the conflict to the other side.

Now we can build a structure. Every story needs a beginning, middle, and end. At the start, the scene introduces the protagonist (in our example, Sara) and her family. The middle drives the plot forward, identifying her conflict and driving home the need for scholarship funding. The end shows the resolution—the impact of donor funds when Sara is the first in her family to attend university.

Why Video is an Effective Storytelling Tool
On social media, the rise of the moving image is evident: video is king. It’s the best vehicle for a story thanks to its ability to be concise and to combine captivating images with stirring music. 

Every organization’s communication efforts, whether they’re a business or nonprofit, can benefit from telling stories through video across every platform. Beyond being influential, it also has the advantage of flexibility: one video can be adapted for multiple lengths and uses. 

Inject a newsletter with more emotion using video, or capture more eyeballs on social media platforms with shortened versions of the same film. Video stories also enhance websites, which become more dynamic when they expand beyond words.

There are several types of stories told through video that, even at abbreviated lengths, won’t sacrifice influence:

• Testimonials
  Interviewing team members, volunteers, donors, or clients and compiling their first-person perspectives is an easy way to create a narrative. Combined with b-roll from the organization’s day-to-day activities, these stories provide authentic examples of your work’s impact.
  

• Use-case videos
  Picture the difference between reading a recipe or watching a short YouTube video on how to create it. That’s the power of use-case videos, which build credibility by using the storytelling adage of “show, don’t tell.” By visualizing the impact of your product, service, or nonprofit program on your audience, you help them make stronger connections with the importance of your work.
  

• Day-in-the-life
  Documentary-style videos are a great way to showcase the organic content that emerges when we spend a day with the protagonists. For example, following a member of your team around a typical workday can showcase the role they play in your company’s success. Or you might have a high-impact program or event, like a food drive, and capture its daily impact on film.

Tell Your Story
Video has become the dominant medium of communication across social platforms.

If you have a story, we might be the right organization to help you tell it. Post Script Productions specializes in video, and our clients benefit from that focus. We take on every step of the project, starting with listening to your story and the story you’re trying to share and who needs to hear it. We handle all aspects of production based on your organization’s or specific project’s needs and then deliver a final product that is true to your mission and message.

Get in touch with us to learn more. We can share samples and talk through your specific needs to explore whether our video production is the right fit.

Events are short-lived. But as anyone who’s planned an event knows, these one-time occurrences require huge investments of both time and resources.

Your organization’s efforts should have a bigger payoff. How? By incorporating video into your event planning.

When you leverage the engagement powers of video before, during, and after the event, you stretch its impact. Now your audience is influenced far beyond the confines of start and end times. In fact, according to research cited by Forbes on the power of visual marketing, 82% of internet traffic will be due to video by the end of 2023.

Here we discuss three opportunities to increase your event’s audience engagement through video. 

Before the Event: Build Anticipation

Successful event attendance will depend on how effectively you inspire and entice your potential audience. 

Static images and print invitations can’t stir emotion quite like video can. The right pre-event video marketing can drum up excitement and effectively recreate the energy of the in-person experience with music, participant interviews, and graphics.

In addition to imparting energy, you can help draw more eyes to your promotion with video. According to Search Engine Journal, YouTube is the second most popular search engine for users after Google, with TikTok quickly emerging as a similar tool. Other social media sites like Instagram favor video Reels in their algorithms. Video is king, and without it, your pre-event promotion likely won’t earn the attention it deserves.

Here are some important ways to make the most of pre-event video marketing:

• Keep it short and sweet. Share the information they need—the who, what, when, where, and why—in a punchy format that’s memorable.
• Utilize last year’s event. B-roll footage from previous years’ events can give people an idea of what to expect. Photos can work too if you didn’t get video coverage. And our team loves collaborating on how pre-existing media can creatively be used! View an example.
  
• Interview event participants. Lacking video (or photos) from previous years? You can use interviews with conference speakers, event organizers, or previous attendees just as effectively. Our team can help set up efficient production days prior to the event to make it convenient for those you’d like to appear on-camera.
• Use the video on multiple platforms. In email, on your website, and in social media posts, your video can be formatted to different lengths to suit each platform and reach audiences multiple times.  View an example.

During the Event: Create a Compelling Experience

Video isn’t just a before-and-after project. It’s also a tool you can use to capture attendees’ attention during the event.

Think of the contrast. Your esteemed guest speaker is coming onto the stage shortly. You have the choice between a written introduction, read-aloud, or a video played on a large screen. Which can more readily give your audience goosebumps?

Whether you are paying tribute to an award winner, introducing a featured guest speaker, or telling your organization’s story, short clips that stir your audience can make these experiences more dynamic.

Here are more ideas for how videos can enhance your event as it’s happening:

• Introductions
  Build excitement for event guests with dynamic video announcements for speakers or award winners.
• Organization biography
  Tell your story consistently across various parts of the event with one biographical video.
• Presentations
  Video presentations signal to the audience that they should be quiet and help them absorb information more coherently than a slide show.
• End-of-year review or thank you
  Make your employees, donors, volunteers, or fundraisers feel more deeply acknowledged with a moment of thanks that can live on far past the event.

After the Event: Make the Feeling Last

Hiring a videographer to document the event has a payoff that can last months and even years.

In your follow-up communication, thanking attendees with a video that reminds them how much fun they had or the purpose of the event adds punch to your message.

For your social media followers, helping them experience or relive the event through the footage makes the impact of the event even longer (and instantly shareable).

And for those you’ve acknowledged during the event, the thank you can live on in video format. The same goes for presentations, which can continue to educate on YouTube or your website. View an example.

Altogether, video helps deepen your relationship with event attendees. Plus, you create resources that help you market future conferences, seminars, parties, or other gatherings with authentic footage that belongs to you.

Ready to Bring Video to Your Event Planning? We Can Help.

Details are our thing. At Post Script Productions, we take on all the video planning—coordination, script writing, interviewing, even hair and makeup—so you can focus on the other parts of your event. We deliver polished film that generates excitement and enthusiasm with your audience.